GWENT councils have had their funding from the Welsh Government for their 2015/16 budgets confirmed with cuts of up to 4.3 per cent.

Public Services minister Leighton Andrews announced the settlements yesterday, with Monmouthshire coming off worst with a 4.3 per cent cut in funding.

Torfaen and Blaenau Gwent’s final settlements were the same as the provisional figures announced in October at 3.7 per cent and 2.8 per cent respectively.

Caerphilly will now have its funding cut by 3.3 per cent instead of the 3.4 per cent originally announced and Newport will see a decrease of 2.5 per cent, compared to the 2.6 per cent in the provisional settlement.

Mr Andrews said: “In preparing the final settlement, I have given careful consideration to the responses I received to the consultation on the provisional settlement. I am confident it provides a robust basis for local authority financial planning for the coming financial year.

“For next year, I am setting local government revenue funding at £4.125 billion. This is slightly higher than I announced in the provisional settlement.”

The cabinet member with responsibility for finance at Monmouthshire County Council Phil Murphy said: "This is a shocking settlement and it is a massive blow to the council and to the people we serve.

“It presents us with almost incomprehensible challenges, as we are forced to find savings of about £27million over the next three years.

"This settlement means Monmouthshire will receive the lowest funding per resident of any Welsh council. I cannot understand why Monmouthshire's residents should be so disadvantaged.

A Torfaen council spokesman said: “The final settlement is as expected and, excluding schools, places a further £10 million of financial pressures for the council next year.

“This follows reductions of £45million over the past 6 years. A wide range of savings proposals have been considered recently by scrutiny to meet this figure and ensure we set a balanced budget for 2015/16.”

Leader of the Caerphilly County Borough Council, cllr Keith Reynolds said: “These are unprecedented financial times for councils across Wales, but I want to give a very strong message that it is our overwhelming intention to protect vulnerable people and front line services where we possibly can.

"Our savings targets are tough and we will need to take some difficult decisions, but I am confident we will continue to deal with these challenges with a measured and balanced approach.”